By Prayas Gupta
Class XII
Rapid developments in biotechnology, genetics and genomics are undoubtedly creating a variety of environmental, ethical, political and social challenges for advanced societies. But they also have severe implications for international peace and security because they open up tremendous avenues for the creation of new biological weapons.
As the development in the field of medicine increases with highly developed robotic devices aimed to change the genetic order of a cell or a virus such as CRISPR, we come across the lethal risks they pose. The genetic change in the microorganism can for example make it more contagious and increase its specific fatality rate.
Adding to this, article 8 of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights states that while applying and advancing scientific knowledge, medical practice and associated technologies, human vulnerability should be taken into account and that any possible harm to such individuals should be minimized. Hence this article clearly tells that all medical research should take place in such a way that it doesn’t affect humanity. Furthermore, to present some examples, The recent medical development in society is a genetically engineered ‘superbug’—that is highly lethal and resistant to environmental influence or any medical treatment and can definitely prove to be a lethal bioweapon seeing its strength.
A research team at the State University of New York in Stony Brook chemically synthesized an artificial polio virus from scratch. They started with the genetic sequence of the agent, which is available online, ordered small, tailor-made DNA sequences and combined them to reconstruct the complete viral genome. In a final step, the synthesized DNA was brought to life by adding a chemical cocktail that initiated the production of a living, pathogenic virus.
This is a highly concerning act as in the name of scientific research, a pathogen highly dangerous was created here which could have spread all over the university causing a serious epidemic. In principle, this method could be used to synthesize other viruses with similarly short DNA sequences.
The genetic enhancement of classical pathogens is only a small part of the array of possibilities that new biomedical techniques have created. What’s also important to note is that new types of biological weapons are becoming possible that were entirely fictitious until a few years ago seeing bio development. The danger is that these new possibilities generate desires even in countries that previously renounced the use and development of classical biological weapons